4 Weeks in Japan

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

On Tuesday, we spent the day on Odaiba, which is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. We had been there before, but there were still some things we wanted to do there. Lexi wasn't feeling too well in the morning, so we got a bit of a late start. We had lunch in Venus Fort again, and while we were there we discovered the awesome arcade that they have there. This arcade in particular had a number of interesting games that we just had to try out.

The arcade had a bunch of these slow-moving animals you can ride:

This was our favorite game. The basic idea is that you bang on a table and then flip it, sending food items, etc. to cause mayhem and upset the people around you:

This one was pretty fun. You throw plastic balls at the screen and it detects when you hit your target. I mostly like the way the guy says "Ready... Go!".

In this game, you drive a bus and have to reach each bus stop according to schedule:

In this game, I think you make cookies?

Yet another test-your-strength game:

This one was an interesting concept: a rhythm shooter.

Of course they have an array of dart boards.

And exercise equipment.

And foot massage machines.

And automated popcorn makers.

And a fortune box. They have these at temples too. If you get a good fortune, you keep it, but it it's bad, you tie it to the thing.

Next we went to the Fuji TV observation deck, which is the ball in the picture below.

It offers a nice view of this part of the bay, including the rainbow bridge, although it was a bit rainy:

To help us get in a patriotic mood, we had to visit the fake statue of liberty:

But the thing that Lexi wanted to do most was to visit the Cat Cafe again. The first time we visited it, the cat/cafe portion of it was closed, and only the store was open. So this is how the Cat Cafe works: You pay to get into the cat/cafe part of the store for some duration of time (we went in for half an hour). You choose your drink, and then you go into a cat's paradise and socialize with a bunch of cats.

There are plenty of places to climb:

And nap:

This TV is always showing cat shows:

Gotta have water straight from the tap:

Getting ready for lunch:

Lunch time:

We had planned to end the day at the Tokyo Dome, where they have a few fun rides, including a roller coaster that passes through the middle of an open-center ferris wheel. Unfortunately, almost all the rides were closed due to rain (though it wasn't raining very hard). One ride that was open was a log ride, which we rode. The ride staff were very happy to practice their English with us. The Tokyo Dome also has several shops and restaurants, so we decided to finish off our trip with some nice Japanese seafood: